A PON (Passive Optical Network) refers to an optical distribution network that does not include any electronic components or electronic power source and is formed only by passive components such as optical splitters. A passive optical network includes an optical line terminal (OLT) installed in a central control station and a set of auxiliary FFTx (Fiber to the x) devices installed at a user site. Specifically, the FFTx devices may include ONUs (Optical Network Units) or ONTs (Optical network terminals).
In an existing PON network, an OLT and an FTTx device each have an independent forwarding entry and run independent software, for example, the OLT may manage the FTTx device by using an OMCI (ONT Management and Control Interface) message, and the FTTx device may also provide an independent IP for a network management system to perform management. The forwarding entries of the OLT and the FTTx device are defined before version release, and a forwarding entry cannot be dynamically added or deleted. In addition, a protocol stack of an FTTx network protocol also runs in the FTTx device and cannot be modified. Therefore, when a new FTTx feature needs to be added or a new feature needs to be modified, the FTTx device needs to be upgraded. However, there are a large number of FTTx devices in a network, and upgrading the large number of FTTx devices bring heavy workload.
The problem in the PON also exists in an access network of another type.
A software defined network (SDN) is a new network innovation architecture in which a core technology openflow implements flexible network traffic control by separating a control plane of a network device and a data plane of the network device, thereby providing an excel lent platform for core network and application innovation.
Based on the foregoing advantage of the SDN network, a traditional access network may evolve into an SDN network. However, deployment of the SDN still brings some problems, for example, when an existing traditional network is switched to an SDN network architecture, an operator needs to deploy a controller, and network operation and maintenance personnel need to learn skills about the SDN network, which require great manpower and investment.